Life in the End of the Rainbow Valley: SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY AT ITS FINEST

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY AT ITS FINEST

No matter where I was going to be situated I knew when I heard a Arkansas Master Gardener trip was planned for early October I was game. COVID certainly would have waned by then, right? Who knew the Delta Variant would follow on its heels.

I made my deposit for the 4 day excursion which was refundable and would carefully be planned with out of door garden visits and precautions.

We would do COVID home testing the night before departure and be masked for indoor situations while most of the adventure would be out of doors in both private and public gardens.

Yesterday we departed, some in private cars and the rest of us filled half a bus even after picking up a couple more folks on the U of A Texarkana campus. Then it was on to Mt. Pleasant, Texas where the Cypress Basin Master Gardeners provided an incredibly warm welcome at their extension center with a homemade luncheon with everything individually wrapped and labelled ( Of course I chose a pimiento cheese sandwich- heck I'm in the South!)

The table centerpieces were lovely nature items.

In addition each of us received the sweetest most considerate homemade goody bag filled with items like seed packets, homemade lemon basil cookies, tiny book for notetaking, a scrubby, soaps and lip balm. The bags decorative thimbles were mini potted plants.

As we ate, a slide show provided the history of the extension center's garden beds and green house. Afterwards we were divided into 2 groups to tour each garden area for a 5 minute presentation with a local Master Gardener. We heard about care, propagation of Texas Superstars, their greenhouse, mulching, raised veggie beds and the nurturing of butterflies with specific species along